Irish Regions Office Website

February 21, 2008

CAP 'Health Check'

How successful is the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and how can it meet future challenges and opportunities?

This was the subject of a recent report by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) on the so-called 'CAP Health Check', announced by the Commission in November which proposes increasing modulation (cutting farm payments) with funds to go to environmental projects; abolishing most remaining market supports and interventions; tapering the Single Farm Payment at the higher levels and instituting a minimum level of payment. Cllr. Seamus Murray (Meath County Council and Mid-East Regional Authority) initiated the report by urging that the CAP be restructured as a means of maintaining sustainable agriculture and self-sufficiency in food rather than being gradually dismantled and renationalised. His report stimulated a wide-ranging and largely supportive discussion in the CoR, highlighting differing views amongst the representatives of Europe's local and regional authorities. In particular, however, Cllr. Murray's report emphasised that modulation decisions should take place at the appropriate devolved level to reflect the diversity of local and regional needs and the importance of appropriate funding for rural development measures; that the "rural development" umbrella should be carefully confined to appropriate issues and challenges only; and that soft landing measures should be put in place to facilitate the gradual phasing out of the milk quota regime by 2015. Commenting on the report, EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mariann Fischer Boel also suggested that regions must be given more autonomy to exploit emerging opportunities and stressed the need to look for ways of improving quality in order to ensure that European agriculture remained competitive. Further details from the IRO.

Posted by iroronan at February 21, 2008 12:58 PM